It is well known in the art to use antennas mounted on a structure to allow communication with equipment located at a distance away. More specifically in the aerospace industry, global coverage antennas, shaped beam antennas and omni-directional antennas are conventionally mounted on spacecraft structure to allow specific communications to and from the ground through a ground station on Earth. These types of antenna typically include at least one helix component wound around an elongated Radio-Frequency (RF) transparent support.
Few examples of helical antennas are illustrated in the following publications:                U.S. Pat. No. 3,573,840, issued Apr. 6, 1971, to Gouillou et al. for “Small Bulk Helically Wound Antennae and Method for Making Same”;        U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,363, issued Jul. 31, 1990, to Hoffman for “Conical Spiral Antenna”;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,134,422, issued Jul. 28, 1992, to Auriol for “Helical Type Antenna and Manufacturing Method Thereof”;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,005, issued Oct. 19, 1993, to Terret et al. for “Dual Layer Resonant Quadrifilar Helix Antenna”;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,329,287, issued Jul. 12, 1994, to Strickland for “End Loaded Helix Antenna”;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,479,182, issued Dec. 26, 1995, to Sydor for “Short Conical Antenna”;        U.S. Pat. No. 5,990,848, issued Nov. 23, 1999, to Arinamaa et al. for “Combined Structure of a Helical Antenna and a Dielectric Plate”;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,002,377 issued Dec. 14, 1999, to Huynh et al. for “Quadrifilar Helix Antenna”;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,229,499 issued May 8, 2001, to Licul et al. for “Folded Helix Antenna Design”;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,339,409 issued Jan. 15, 2002, to Warnagiris for “Wide Bandwidth Multi-Mode Antenna”;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,384,799 issued May 7, 2002, to Otomo et al. for “Antenna Having a Helical Antenna Element Extending Along a Cylindrical Flexible Substrate”;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,429,830 issued Aug. 6, 2002, to Noro et al. for “Helical Antenna, Antenna Unit, Composite Antenna”;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,496,159 issued Dec. 17, 2002, to Noro for “Simple Helical Antenna and Method of Producing the Same”;        U.S. Pat. No. 6,535,179 issued Mar. 18, 2003, to Petros for “Drooping Helix Antenna”; and        U.S. patent application Ser. No. US 2003/0020670 A1 published Jan. 30, 2003, to Noro for “Helical Antenna”.        
The above-mentioned designs, however, could not be used in aerospace applications in which the complex and stringent mechanical and electrical environments the antennas encounter or need to survive impose multiple antenna design constraints of different natures such as electrical, mechanical, thermal, structural, manufacturing, electrostatic discharge (ESD), etc.
Accordingly, for example, the helix support of a typical spacecraft antenna needs to be as much as possible RF transparent but should also permit any static electrical charge built-ups to bleed off therefrom without damaging the antenna or even without affecting the RF signal of the antenna. Similarly, some materials and manufacturing processes are susceptible to generate Passive Inter-Modulation (PIM) products as well as multipaction which could be highly damageable to the antenna in space applications.
Conventional designs of helical antennas are suitable for small quantities, but when large amount of helical antennas are required as radiating elements in assemblies of array-type antennas, the manufacturing cost of a single helical antenna needs to be reduced.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved helical antenna with a simple configuration.